True stories - the power of homeopathy

Jager Wetherby hasn't always been the happy, healthy child you see here. At 18 months, she was scratching patches of her skin raw in her sleep. A conventional dermotologist diagnosed severe eczema and prescribed cortisone cream. Wanting a more holistic cure, Jager's mother brought her to me. Jager's story --and the other two cases here--reveal the

YOU'VE GOT A "STOMACH" PROBLEM. YOU'RE GASSY. QUEASY. THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME. A few years back you picked up this bug and couldn't shake it for two weeks. You tried to eat better, looked for ways to cut stress in your life, and finally gave in to the antacids that you picked up at the drugstore. This time, you've had the same bug for a month and you can't seem to shake it. You need to see a doctor. What kind will you see?

Let me guess--"homeopathic doctor" does not spring to mind. Based on my 20 years of work as a homeopathic physician, however, I think homeopathy has great power to help people overcome a variety of health problems, including the one described above. People don't often turn to homeopathy, though, because they don't understand how it works.

Homeopathic medicines work on a very simple principle: they jump-start the body's own ability to heal itself. They tap into the same power that heals a cut or helps you get over a cold. And these remedies do work. I say this with confidence because, one, I've seen them work, and two, nearly 90 scientific studies have shown that they do. (See "Four Tough Questions About Homeopathy".)

There are many reasons why we get sick why our self-healing powers don't operate flawlessly--besides the obvious ones like stress or poor eating habits. Each of us has innate constitutional weaknesses that manifest themselves as ailments, and these can pop up from time to time for no apparent reason like the weak stomach mentioned earlier--or because our body's defense system is running low.

If I were your homeopathic doctor, I would match a remedy to your weak stomach. In addition to helping you get well, this remedy could also give your immune system the periodic boost it needs to keep you healthy. In this sense, homeopathy is lifelong medicine.

The following three cases demonstrate how this principle works. In some ways they are remarkable stories--the patients at times overcame problems that conventional doctors might have struggled to treat. But in other ways they're typical of thousands of cases I've seen. They will give you an inside look at how I determine the right remedy, and how I must sometimes find that remedy through trial and error. But as you will see, once the correct remedy is found, its effects can be profound.

Homeopathy has relaxed me. It has changed my life. I don't think my anxiety will ever totally go away because it's part of my temperament. I can control it, but I can't talk myself out of it.

PATIENT: Shaun Diaz PROBLEM: Anxiety, insomnia and nightmares, scattered thinking AGE WHEN FIRST SEEN: 7 AGE MOST RECENTLY SEEN: 15 (1997)

I first saw Shaun in September 1989. A bright-eyed, talkative 7-year-old boy, Shaun was having trouble sleeping because he was fearful and anxious, and he was having bad dreams. He was afraid to be alone in his room, and would wake screaming from nightmares, sobbing and unable to go back to sleep. Shaun was also afraid of the dark, and of ghosts or strange noises in the night.

In addition to his fears, Shaun was often forgetful and had trouble concentrating. Despite these problems, I saw clearly that Shaun was a creative, imaginative child with energy and a strong love of music.

Although there are literally thousands of remedies to choose from in homeopathic medicine, I find that about 80 percent of the time, people can benefit from one of the 20 to 40 most common remedies, which we refer to as polycrests.

Shaun's symptoms matched perfectly with the remedy picture for the element Phosphorus. Patients who do well on this remedy are extroverted and sympathetic; have a great many fears; and are thirsty for cold drinks, among other things. They also have difficulty concentrating and prefer creative to academic pursuits.

I use several criteria to determine a dose. The two most important ones are, first, how clearly the patient's symptoms match the remedy and, second, how strong the patient's constitution is (younger patients can often tolerate higher doses). I prescribed a dose of Phosphorus for Shaun and asked his mother to bring him back in six weeks.

I have to pay careful attention to dosages. I don't want to give too high a dose or administer it too frequently. This is because homeopathic remedies are not designed to mask the symptoms of the illness, as conventional drugs do, but instead to produce a healing response. Sometimes the healing response produces symptoms (like coughing during a cold helps to expel phlegm). In homeopathy, it's not the drug that cures the illness, but instead the response of the body's healing mechanisms to the remedy. The idea is to give the smallest amount of drug possible to bring about a response. After I give a remedy, I watch the patient very carefully to see how the healing response changes. This can take four to six weeks, because a remedy can only proceed as quickly as the body can heal itself.

When Shaun returned he said his fears and scary dreams were gone. Why did the Phosphorus eliminate his symptoms? According to the principles of homeopathy, Shaun's system was out of balance and the imbalance showed up as anxiety. The remedy stimulated his innate healing abilities, allowing his body to right the imbalance by itself. And as the body heals, the symptoms disappear.

But they usually don't go away forever.

Shaun came back to see me a year after his first visit. His fears and sleep problems had returned, and he was still having problems staying focused. I prescribed another dose of Phosphorus--and once again the remedy helped.

Why didn't homeopathy eliminate his symptoms once and for all? The answer lies in the constitutional weakness. Homeopathy strengthens the overall system so it is less susceptible to those imbalances, but it can't eradicate the tendency altogether. The body still must call upon its healing resources to pull itself back into balance, which is what the remedy helps with. In Shaun's case, the Phosphorus strengthened his system enough to hold off the anxiety for almost a year, which I consider an excellent response. In most cases, remedies are needed every three to six months. This is because over time the body starts to get out of balance again, due to the stress of everyday living. The body then needs to be recharged, much like a car battery

Shaun came in again when he was 9. He said that the fears were no longer a problem. But his mother was concerned about possible learning disabilities, since Shaun's teacher had recommended that he be tested for ADHD.

At this time, I went back over the initial history very carefully If his symptoms had changed, it might have warranted a different remedy They hadn't, so I felt the original remedy was still correct, but I gave him a stronger dose.

Although he is only 15, Shaun has a keen understanding of what he's up against. "Homeopathy has relaxed me. It has changed my life," he says today. "I don't think my anxiety will ever totally go away because it's part of my temperament. I can control it, but I can't talk myself out of it."

My husband used to call it voodoo, but he's been helped as well. Since getting the homeopathic medicine, he hasn't had to take the medicine his doctors gave him.

PATIENT: Esther Wallace PROBLEM: Joint pains and sinus infections AGE WHEN FIRST SEEN: 57 AGE MOST RECENTLY SEEN: 72 (1998)

Almost fifteen years ago, when she was 57, Esther Wallace came to me with a range of symptoms, from chronic sinus infections to severe joint pain in the hands. knees, and fingers, which had forced her to give up lifelong hobbies such as knitting and sewing. Esther had been treated with several rounds of antibiotics for her sinus troubles and had even undergone surgery to remove a cyst in her sinus cavity, but her troubles had invariably returned.

Esther and I spent an hour and a half discussing her symptoms and any factors that might have influenced her problems, such as the weather, her diet, or her emotions. As I do with all my patients, I asked her many questions designed to help me form a picture of her personality, temperament, emotional state, dreams, body temperature, and sexual energy, among other things.

Esther's finger joints were so swollen--some to twice their normal size--that she was unable to grasp things. In addition to her joint problems, which occurred primarily on her right side, she had severe gas after eating; strong cravings for sweets, coffee, and bread; and an aversion to milk and fatty foods. She described herself as intense, serious, thorough, detail-oriented, and spiritual.

Given Esther's historical information, I prescribed Calcarea carbonica (calcium carbonate), a polycrest used to treat people who are hard-working and stubborn, and who often have joint problems and repeated infections. I gave Esther a more mild dose than I had given Shaun because her symptoms didn't point as clearly toward one remedy as Shaun's had, and because her symptoms were more physical.

In Esther's case, however, there was no immediate improvement. In fact, she developed new symptoms--pain in the hips and toes, frequent muscle spasms, and irritability.

At that point, I reanalyzed her case. Because many of her symptoms were on the right side of her body which can point to certain remedies, and because of the swelling of her finger joints, I prescribed a dose of Lycopodium, a remedy made from a plant called club moss. Within the next week, she reported an aggravation of many of her previous symptoms, including a sore throat, urinary pain, and bloating. Although she was discouraged, I assured her that this often happens after the correct remedy has been taken.

Aggravation happens in about 10 percent of all patients I treat, and it is the only known side effect in homeopathy Sometimes it happens because a patient is very sensitive to a remedy and sometimes it happens as a natural part of the healing process. Although the symptoms may be unpleasant, they play an important role in healing--if they are suppressed, then the body's ability to heal itself is suppressed.

Esther understood the process. "I had read that when the immune system has been damaged through years of symptom suppression it takes a long time for the body to get rebalanced," she says today "I knew that it would take time because I had spent so many years taking antibiotics that I had a lot of damage to undo."

Two weeks later she saw the results she'd been waiting for. The pain in her joints had diminished, she was able to open jars without help, and her overall energy level was better.

Since that time, Esther has continued to improve. She still gets sore joints after she uses her hands a lot, but she is able to play the piano without difficulty In the past two years, she has needed only three doses of Lycopodium, six to eight months apart. Esther is delighted with her state of health.

"My husband used to call it voodoo, but he's been helped as well," Esther says. "He had a chronic gout problem. Since getting the homeopathic medicine, he hasn't had to take the medicine his doctors gave him to keep his uric acid levels down. He goes to the urologist once a year, and his blood work is so good they keep asking him, "'Are you sure you aren't taking the medicine?'"

PATIENT: Jager Wetherby PROBLEM: Eczema AGE WHEN FIRST SEEN: 18 months AGE MOST RECENTLY SEEN: l0 (1998)

Another child I have treated successfully for years is Jager Wetherby. Jager had suffered from severe eczema since birth, with rashes on her inner wrists and elbows and behind her knees. The itching was so severe that it would wake her up in the night, and she would scratch her skin until it was raw and bleeding.

Jager's mother, Beth Munson, was frustrated with the medical advice they were receiving. "I took her to a dermatologist, and he told me to keep putting hydrocortisone cream on her. He said that's all we could do, try and keep it under control."

Jager was the classic picture of a child needing the remedy Calcarea carbonica. They have frequent colds and skin rashes. Independent and strong-willed, these children are also pleasant and helpful. I gave her a 200C dose and made an appointment for a follow-up visit three weeks later.

At first, Jager was markedly worse. She would wake crying in the night from the itching, and toss and turn during sleep. On further questioning, I learned that the rash had worsened during the first week after treatment, but then leveled off. Jager's parents also noted that the rash had become worse behind the knees, while the areas on the arms were actually somewhat better.

This is a common response with homeopathy--an improvement of symptoms begins in the upper parts of the body. This is referred to as Hering's Law, which states that healing tends to occur from above downward. It is a sign that I've selected the correct remedy

One month later the improvement was striking. Jager's eczema had virtually disappeared. I did not see Jager again until a year later, when the rash returned on the back of her knees and inside her elbows. I gave her another 200C dose of Calcarea carbonica, and she improved within two or three weeks. She had two more relapses within the next year, and then needed a treatment only about every other year.

Earlier this year, however, Jager, now 10 years old, came in for a visit. The rash had returned on the fingers of one hand, so I gave her another dose of Calcarea carbonica. But this time the remedy didn't help, and after re-evaluating her case, I decided to try Sulphur.

This is also common with homeopathy: As people get older, sometimes their remedy picture changes and I need to select a different remedy This is usually because, as the healing occurs, certain symptoms disappear and new ones appear which, in mm, require a new remedy. With Jager, however, this turned out not to be the case. She did not get better with Sulphur, and I decided to go back to Calcarea carbon/ca, but at a different dosage. When I'd first seen Jager as a baby, I'd given her a 200C dose, but as time passed, I'd worked up in potency--in 1994, she received a dose of CM (the remedy is diluted 1 to 100, 100,000 times), which is the highest dose available. When she came back in the summer of this year, I started over at the 200 level again, which is standard practice once you've reached the highest dosage. I fiddled around with her doses for a few treatments, trying to find one that worked, and finally settled on a dose of 1 M, which alleviated her symptoms.

I can't really explain why a patient reacts to one potency and not another, but over the years I have learned the importance of trial and error. Only the correct dose of the right medicine will jump-start a body's innate healing abilities.

RELATED ARTICLE: Four Tough Questions About Homeopathy

Q: How does homeopathy work?

A: We don't know. It seems to stimulate the self-healing properties of the body, but how it happens on the physiological level has not really been explained. Some people think we're dealing with vital energy, and there's a lot of research going into subatomic particles in homeopathy. We're dealing with something that science is not sophisticated enough to explain at this point. But just because we can't explain it doesn't mean it's not valid. The fact is, homeopathy has been used for 200 years by millions of people all over the world. You can't say it's a figment of their imaginations because so many of them have been healed.

Q: Since some homeopathic remedies are so highly diluted that it doesn't seem possible that any molecules of the original substance are left, what is the patient responding to? How does this work?

A: Some homeopathic doctors think that the dilution process somehow changes the structure of the solution, changes the molecular configuration so that even after the actual substance is no longer left, there's still an impression. But the truth is, we don't really know how they work.

Q: The more diluted the preparation, the more potent it's considered to be. How do you explain this?

A: It has been shown over time that the more diluted a medicine is, the more deeply it works, and the longer the effects last. We don't really have a scientific explanation, but in over 200 years of practicing homeopathy, this has been shown to be the case.

Q: Are there any large clinical studies that support the healing claims of homeopaths like yourself?.

A: There have been a number of well-designed, placebo-controlled studies suggesting that homeopathy is effective, including my own study on childhood diarrhea, published in Pediatrics in 1994. A summary of these studies can be found in Lancet, a British publication which in September 1997 published an article aimed at assessing "whether the effect seen with homeopathic remedies is equivalent to that seen with placebo." The article analyzed the results of 89 placebo-controlled trials, and concluded that homeopathic medicines were nearly 2 1/2 times more effective than placebos.

Jennifer Jacobs, M.D., MPH, is a family practice physician specializing in homeopathic medicine in Edmonds, Wash. She is also a clinical assistant professor in epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, where she conducts research on the use of homeopathic medicines in primary care. She has recently co-authored a book, Healing with Homeopathy, with Dr. Wayne Jonas, published by Warner Books.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group